1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to control devices for automatically turning a television set on or off and more specifically to a control device that limits the daily or weekly viewing time of several viewers to a predetermined period of time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recent studies appear to indicate children of the 1970's are not as well educated as the children of the preceding decade. Many educational administrators and child psychologists have placed the blame for the reduced educational levels on the substantial amount of television viewing time of today's children.
In the past, there has been no satisfactory means for selectively controlling the viewing time of children if a parent or guardian is not present to direct their activity. It is known that in some instances, parents have resorted to disabling their television sets by removing one of its components when it is known they will not be home to supervise their children. Also, a device has been produced that can be used with a standard television set and provides a locking switch for the television set that can be locked in an off condition when parents do not wish to have their children viewing television. The above control methods have proved unsatisfactory because they do not permit the children to do any television viewing unless their parents are present and there are many educational programs during the early afternoon that children of working parents would miss.
The present invention provides a television viewing control device that selectively controls the viwing time of viewers watching the controlled television set to permit them to watch a predetermined amount of television at selective times during a day and to turn the television set to an off condition once such amount has been exceeded.